History

The programme was first aired in 2000. The cast of the first series was different from that of the other instalments. Of the now-established team, only Culshaw and Ravens appeared, as did Kate Robbins, Simon Lipson and, most notably, Alistair McGowan.

Content

The series is well known for its portrayal of fellow BBC employees, such as Radio 4 newsreader Brian Perkins as a Godfather-like figure ("Who's the daddy?"), controlling all of Radio 4. He often sends death threats to other members of the BBC, and threatens to kill anyone who tries to chat-up his love interest Charlotte Green. In one sketch, the Dead Ringers Brian telephoned the real Brian, and the impersonator accused the real Brian of not being "hard" enough. Later, the real Brian joined in on the joke, claiming that he put colleague Peter Donaldson's feet in some concrete and threw him into a canal.

Another character was the former Director General of the BBC, Greg Dyke, portrayed with a Michael Caine-like accent by Phil Cornwell, who had previously played Caine in Stella Street. Dyke was portrayed under varying circumstances, such as claiming to have recommissioned Fame Academy whilst he was drunk at the BBC Christmas Party. Dyke is portrayed as harbouring personal hatred against the Daleks: "Bring back Doctor Who? OK - but there's going to be no Daleks in it. They've crossed me too many times!"

Newsreader Kirsty Wark (of Newsnight) regularly opens bulletins on the programme with a line from a popular song read in a tone of voice more apt for a news segment, always closing with the phrase "More on that story later." Fiona Bruce and Charlotte Green (of Radio 4) are portrayed as seductive and saucy; the later confesses to a "ribald" sense of humour.

Broadcasts reportedly from Downing Street parody previous BBC political editor Andrew Marr, showing his supposed eccentric manner, interminable sentences, and jerky movements — he is shown with giant artificial hands operated by puppet rods and speaks in mixed metaphor: "Well Fiona, might I say my goose has well and truly had its chips". Sir Patrick Moore is revealed not to be an astronomer but actually a peeping-tom and psychic around the London Eye. Famous movie quotes are often twisted and added to everyday things. For example, Russell Crowe in Gladiator: "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife... and that's when I called Claims Direct!” 'Jazz' singer Jamie Cullum is portrayed with the voice and body movements of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.

One recurring gag includes celebrities being introduced in news reports or interviews as the "offspring" of a famous person, character or even an object from everyday entertainment or culture.

Culshaw regularly performs prank telephone calls, impersonating (among many others) Tom Baker's incarnation of the Doctor, Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, art critic Brian Sewell and talk show presenter Michael Parkinson. In the TV version, he roams in public as such characters, vexing shop assistants and used-car salesmen alike with such pronouncements as, "I seek passage to Aldershot" which mirrors Alec Guinness's line in Star Wars "I seek passage to Alderaan." He also interviewed a bus stop full of people as Parkinson. As the Doctor, he ventured into a furniture store seeking a replacement for the TARDIS, eventually entering one wardrobe and re-emerging from the other (much to the astonishment of the shop clerk). He also accompanied a group of tourists onto the London Eye while declaring that they were in fact trapped in a Sontaran "interstitial time helix."

The Jeremy Kyle Show is also featured, with Mr Kyle calling the guests 'scum' and forcing them to make up. He also screams at audience members and guests. "HUG HIM!" then "THAT'S NOT HUGGING!". He also shouts "Roll the credits... FASTER!" "Hello I'm Jeremy Kyle, and you're scum."

In the radio series, several Radio 4 shows are mocked. They include the Today Programme, where John Humphrys never gets the time right, Sue MacGregor stressing the "Mac" in her name, and Rabbi Lionel Blue on "Thought for the Day" telling listeners "Don't worry, something will turn up, it usually does." Other shows mocked include Go 4 It, Radio 4's children programme that seemed to offer very little that children would be interested in, such as poetry and book readings. It was formerly hosted by Matt Smith, most noted for saying "Ace," at the end of every sentence. He is the only person that even Brian Perkins fears taking on.

However, the show most famously mocked is Radio 4's soap opera, The Archers. Characters normally impersonated include Clarrie and Eddie Grundy, stumbling from one crisis to another, Joe Grundy and his incomprehensible yokel accent, Jack Woolly’s equally incomprehensible Brummie, posh Brian Aldridge, snooty Lynda Snell, and Ruth "Oh noooh" Archer.

Politicians

A former running gag, dating back to the earliest radio series of Dead Ringers, has former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, referring to his physical characteristics and mannerisms while speaking. Recently, however, this is often replaced by Blair addressing the nation in an insulting, oppressive or vaguely aggressive way. In one episode of Dead Ringers, prior to his resignation as prime minister, Tony Blair is seen regenerating into David Tennant, or the Tenth Doctor during an interview with Nick Robinson, after stating that the Blair legacy must go on.

Meanwhile, former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, speaks in nonsensical, incomprehensible and, above all, long sentences. On one occasion he catches fire when two of his incomprehensible sentences rub together, along with being the subject of the "Prescott-Widening Scheme" to go with a similar one for Britain's roads. When he announces that this scheme would reduce the amount of incomprehensible sentences uttered, Kirsty Wark comments that this could be the most popular thing he's ever done.

Dr John Reid is portrayed as a Victor Meldrew-like character, always complaining and throwing abuse at TV presenters, but is later portrayed as a tough hardman.

When David Blunkett was Home Secretary, he was portrayed as a hard man who was "Only in this Home Secretary game for the arse-kicking". On a revamped episode of the Today show, he expressed his desire to become a Hollywood reporter and sort out Ben Affleck. After he was sacked as Home Secretary, Blunkett was in line to become the next hard man on EastEnders, with "Dirty" Den having a premonition that he was about to die in a needlessly sensationalist way. It later emerged that Blunkett had had an affair with "Dirty" Den and then cruelly dumped him.

The late Robin Cook is even less coherent, and it has been suggested that the famous Doctor Who theme music was created by combining a recording of Cook explaining his views on the European Union with (for the higher-pitched sounds) his reaction to being told that all young, female BBC employees were turned on by ugly ginger men with beards.

Clare Short is meanwhile portrayed as an angry woman hated by the government, with an almost fixed grimace: "I was so flabbergasted when the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, announced that we were going to war that my jaw dropped by almost half a millimetre!", while Alistair Darling's contrasting black eyebrows and white hair make him more badger than human.

Charles Kennedy, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, appears as a bit of a drunk, while Michael Howard, the former head of the Conservative Party, was shown as a vampire (a reference to the "something of the night about him" comment by Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe). In some episodes, he channelled all of his evil into his left hand, to create a "hand of evil", which would often embarrass him when he tried to express his view on something. During a time when some Conservative peers defected to the UK Independence Party, his hand of evil defected to UKIP, so he cut off his hand to remove it from the party and his body. But, as a result, his other hand became evil (and defected to the BNP).

The current opposition leaders are also parodied; David Cameron is a vote grabbing popularist, who avoids the tough issues in favour of policies about coat hangers and children's clothing, and has to write down the name of his party on the palm of his hand. Menzies Campbell meanwhile is portrayed as an old, out-of-touch grandfatherly figure ignored by his party; at one point, the Liberal Democrats brick-up all the windows and doors to his house. He frequently complains about the poor conditions in the old people's home in which he resides and always refers to himself in the third person as "Mighty Ming", a reference to the arch-enemy of Flash Gordon, Ming the Merciless. He ends every speech by saying "night night" and turning off the lamp by which he is sitting.

The Queen is also ridiculed, portrayed as someone who constantly makes announcements. She is first seen making an apology for her involvement in the Paul Burrell affair — and is mocked by the media as being someone "who holds all the answers to all the unsolved cases without even realising it". The Queen also appears for fictional newspaper The Bung, as "an old lady who met Diana once or twice in a big house". She comments briefly on the princess and asks "Can one have one's money now?" The Queen has also fought Darth Vader, who turned out to be Prince Philip behind the mask. The Queen also hosts QVC Shopping Channel with Prince Philip, who is selling a diamond tiara for nothing to any member of the Royal household. He advises them that they can take it round the "society jewellers and flog it for more money than Harry spends on hashish". She also took over Helen Mirren's role in Prime Suspect in revenge for Mirren playing the Queen in the movie of the same title. She closed the episode with the line "One's telling you one's nicked, you slag!"

In Series 7, John Reid is portrayed as the nodding dog "Churchill", which says "oh, yes" when something is correct, and, when he was asked if he would fix the Home Office, he said "Oh, no no". There was a parody of the Apple Mac computer, where Blair was the "PC" and Cameron was the "MAC"; they both agreed that they are all the public have (for leadership), and then Campbell drives in his electric wheelchair, saying that he's a Sinclair ZX81. Gordon Brown, initially portrayed simply as an incredibly emotionless and unexpressive man, has now become a fully robotic character, often malfunctioning and occasionally issuing Dalek-esque calls to "EXTERMINATE!" He is also shown as a dictatorial, Stalin-esque figure.

George W. Bush

Unlike Spitting Image, which satirised many international public figures, Dead Ringers tends to concentrate on British ones. One notable exception is U.S. President George W. Bush, whose own Bushisms are ridiculed even further with invented words such as "Ignorify", "Astonisherate", "Climactification" and "Shockerating". At one point he refers to Condoleezza Rice as "Basmati Rice" and displays his misspeaking with the statement "I want Osama Bin Laden capturised alive or dead or both!" His use of malapropisms is also lampooned ruthlessly, such as when he says, "My fellow Abbytitmuses, this is your Steradent speaking..."

Sometimes, his actions are caricatured as childlike and lacking in understanding of the consequences (for example, taping over intelligence videos with episodes of Sesame Street). One of the most famous sketches of the President involves him telling the captured Saddam Hussein that it's now his turn to start hiding in a new game of international hide-and-seek (lampooning the Monty Python sketch of the same name). In one sketch, the show lampoons the American public by using Bush as a 'translator' for a speech that Culshaw's Tony Blair is making. Bush reduces the speech to statements such as "America good" and "Bad man obliterified!".

Parodies

Song Parodies

In later TV series of the show, there have been parodies of songs, parodying the song, the singer and music videos. Some examples of these are:

Norah Jones - (2004 Christmas Special) She is portrayed with a very soft voice so that no one actually takes notice of her, and she fades easily into the background, no matter how hard she tries to attract people's attention.

Gwen Stefani - her song parodies the randomness of her music videos, with unicorns and random Japanese girls running, and the idea that some of the grunts heard in her songs aren't sexual but constipation due to the fact that she doesn't eat.

Jack Johnson (Series Six, Episode Six): This parodies the relaxed and mellow style of the singer's work, and the idea that they are similar to "nursery rhymes and the theme to Postman Pat". The parody song also says that if he were to be more mellow, he would be "clinically dead."

Dido - Her music is portrayed as hard to follow and depressing, and the video involves some highly comical suicides.

Beyonce Knowles - Ravens lampoons how her music videos constantly promote her bottom as the root of her fame. She also sings about some female politicians using their bottoms to woo others.

Madonna - Shown as desperate for publicity, goes through all her various incarnations. In a bid to stay popular, she claims she will do anything, even learn to sing.

Animated Content

Mr. Men/Little Miss - This is a parody of the series of children's books, which includes many "chav" references, some of the characters include Little Miss Chav, Mr Crack Dealer, Mr Happy-Slapper, Little Miss ASBO and Mr Drive-By Shooting, including Mr Happy (who took physical and verbal abuse from most of the characters in this, such as "Piss off you wanker!", said by Little Miss Chav). Narrated by Mark Perry.

The Stimpsons - A parody of The Simpsons in which Homer is really Captain Pugwash, Marge is Mr Benn in disguise, Bart is actually Charley the Cat and the sofa is Bagpuss under a blanket. It is also revealed that Lisa is actually the robotic number 2 from the previous BBC 2 idents.

The titles that show the viewers where the characters are, are shown more here, and respond to the criticism of the cast, but when Robin Hood and others are over-critical, the titles tell them they are in Peckham High Road instead of Sherwood Forest.

When the Sheriff of Nottingham imposes 21st century tax which the peasant can't pay, he decides that Robin Hood needs to be got rid of, one of Guy of Gisbourne's soldiers suggests an arrow amnesty to disarm Robin Hood.

Torchwood

The recent series' have included various sketches devoted to Torchwood where the Cardiff Rift is seen as a way of randomly changing scene locations, the sketch also makes fun of the fact that it is seen as an adult version of Doctor Who, the Welsh setting, along with the campness of Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). Each character is so one dimensional they have to keep their characteristic stuck to the jacket, such as "Annoying" (Owen Harper), "Dull and Annoying" (Ianto Jones), "Camp and Annoying" (Jack Harkness) and, finally, Gwen is simply "Welsh".

The Weakest Link

Earlier episodes of the show featured a number of spoof episodes of the TV programme The Weakest Link, variously featuring Jesus' disciples, Robert Falcon Scott and his Antarctic explorers, and monks who had taken a vow of silence. In the former two, Anne Robinson (played by Jan Ravens) appeared from nowhere, riding her desk, and entered an apparently historical scene, which rapidly converted into the Weakest Link studio. Robinson herself was depicted as being unreasonably and sadistically cruel, throwing a snowball at doomed explorer Captain Lawrence Oates as he leaves, while responding to his famous last words with "You'll be gone forever matey! Now shove off!" Also, Robinson appeared from nowhere when Jesus and his disciples (only eight are shown) have their last supper, in which Judas is voted off from the round (as 'the Weakest Disciple').

The Radio Show versions featured King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and a themed sketch that had a large number of Television gameshow hosts like Chris Tarrant, the late Richard Whiteley and Ruby Wax. It was called The Weakest Host and Anne berated them each, voting them all out. A Doctor Who-themed sketch featured Anne Robinson as a possible candidate to play the Ninth Doctor. Featuring the Daleks and the Cybermen, the Daleks were voted as The Weakest Evil Creature and had to perform the Walk of Shame, "The most embarrassing part was the walk of shame, I'm sure it never used to be three flights of stairs". But possibly the most famous of these radio sketches was the ultimate showdown between Anne and Brian Perkins, which results in Anne being declared the weakest link by the "Daddy of the BBC.

Deal or No Deal

The programme also parodies the daytimeChannel 4game showDeal or No Deal, with Culshaw impersonating Noel Edmonds and frequently mocking both the repetitive nature of the programme and fact that the show's excitement is derived entirely from the opening of boxes. Another sketch also showed Anne Robinson, host of daytime game show The Weakest Link, appearing in the Deal or No Deal studio and ruining Edmond's television comeback by summoning Noel's House Party regular Mr Blobby, who destroys the studio before wrestling Edmonds to the ground, causing Edmonds to sob whilst yelling "You've ruined everything!”

On 29 October2006 Culshaw appeared on Deal or No Deal itself, impersonating Edmonds as part of the show's first birthday special.

Alan Rickman, Ian McKellen and Brian Blessed

Another running gag is a satire on the fact that Ian McKellen, Alan Rickman and Brian Blessed are often typecast as over-the-top, melodramatic or camp stock villains in films and TV shows (Rickman, it has been noted, often takes roles McKellen has previously turned down).

A common sketch will start up with a set up of the scene (e.g. a Schwarzenegger-esque action hero battling armed men in an action film), then McKellen will burst onto the screen in an electric wheelchair and mock the protagonist of the sketch (often he opens with the line: "I'm Ian McKellen aka Doctor Death!"), then Rickman will appear on screen and proclaim something to the effect of "Not if I have anything to do with it, I'm Alan Rrrrrrrrickman!" (the impersonator often exaggerates Rickman's drawling voice). The two villains will forget the protagonist and proceed to insult each other, each claiming to be the better villain (often the impersonators pick out characteristics of Rickman and McKellen that make them suitable stock villains. One memorable sketch has McKellen proclaiming: "But everybody knows I'm far more moustache-twirling and cruel than you are!" to which Rickman replies: "But I'm more stiff-necked than you and I do a great set of arrrrrrrched eyebrows!"). Eventually the argument escalates to a point where they both unveil deadly weapons. McKellen sports a retractable "miniature cannon" (though it resembles a Gatling gun more than anything else) attached to his wheelchair, whilst Rickman pulls a huge silver bazooka as if from nowhere. These weapons even appear when the two men face off for the role of 'Mr Parcy', the cad in a period drama - with Rickman referring to his gun as a 'Regency Bazookoid Blaster'. They both proceed to shoot each other until they are dead, leaving the protagonist of the sketch shell-shocked. Eventually the protagonist will proclaim something to the effect of "Where am I going to find another melodramatic villain for my last action film?", at which point Brian Blessed bursts into the room, clad in a costume resembling the costume he wore as Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon. Blessed always looks extremely jolly and always says only one line at the top of his voice: "HELLO! I'M BRIAN BLESSED!", to which the protagonist will react in an annoyed or aggressive manner, (eg. 'oh sod off, fatty' in the period drama, and being shot by Schwarzenegger in the action film).

Countdown Extra

Countdown Extra was a sketch that featured an Big Brother-esque "extra" programme to complement Countdown. The show was complete with excitable presenters such as Justin Lee Collins and a hyped up studio audience similar to Saturday morning shows and Big Brother spin-offs on E4. The audience were asked for their reactions on the day's questions and the camera was spun everywhere with the audience cheering in the background. Comedy actress and regular impressionist Jess Robinson featured as a blonde bimbo type, exclaiming 'I'd like to give Des; one from the top, two from the bottom and three from anywhere else!'. At the end of the sketch, another Big Brother parody was shown when the audience was asked to evict one of two letters.

Countdown is a slow and traditional show that was mercilessly compared with Channel 4's youth-orientated line-up. Des Lynam is portrayed as the disgruntled and defeatist presenter, who seems constantly in conflict with the show which he takes every opportunity to devalue ('OK, so Dave is the best at making a word out of Strobcats..'). He is seen as dismayed by the passing of time in his current status ('...that's another 30 seconds of my life I'll never see again') and as a result is frequently in reminiscence of his past ('Do you think when I was 25 I was playing word games with Martin bloody Jarvis?'), particularly his football commentator roots ('I used to be the most important man in football, you know.') In one episode, he appears on Match of the Day determined to become the presenter again. He says he doesn't mind just covering the boring matches, "the ones with America playing".